Police use water canon to disperse a rally making its way to Kizilay Square in the capital Ankara, as mainly teachers demonstrated against the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government's education policy, on December 20, 2014.(AFP Photo / Adem Altan) / AFP

Police in Ankara detained more than 100 people during a protest organized by a secular teachers’ union as officers used force to disperse the demonstration in a surprise crackdown.

Hundreds of
demonstrators demanding “respect for secular education and
labor” gathered Saturday morning in Tandogan Square in
central Ankara. According to the protestors, police began to fire
water cannons and tear gas on the crowd without warning.

Mehmet Balik, chief of the union’s Antalya branch, was one of
those being held in custody for interrogation. Balik told The
Hurriyet Daily News that the police, who called the protests
illegal, launched a surprise attack on the crowd.

“We stood up for the rights of our teachers and civil
servants, but we were the victims of a police attack without any
warning,” he said. “They soaked down the group, which
also included children and the elderly.”

Demonstrators, at first, refused to comply with police demands to
disperse and insisted on marching towards the Kizilay
neighborhood, reports Hurriyet.

Many of those detained were members and executives of the union,
including Egitm-Is head, Veli Demir.

Secularists fear that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may be
steering the country away from the secular foundations
established by first president, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Erdogan’s
recent statements on education have prompted concern that he may
move to introduce religion into schools. Earlier this fall,
Turkey lifted a ban on headscarves in high schools.

The police crackdown comes amid a larger clobbering of dissent in
Turkey. Last week, after a media raid, more than 20 suspected
supporters of exiled cleric and foe of President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, Fethullah Gulen were detained. This Friday, an Istanbul
court issued a warrant for the arrest of Gulen himself, who is
being accused of trying to create a “parallel state.”

Last March, Erdogan temporarily banned YouTube and Twitter during
a corruption probe which resulted in the resignation of four of
his top ministers and spurred Erdogan to fire hundreds of
officials and police, fearing betrayal.

Critics have accused Erdogan’s administration of dogged effort to
stomp out opposition.